Gemma Redux's Rachel Dooley On Making Less Than Pretty Things Gorgeous

Two years ago Rachel Dooley was a full time lawyer. She'd fool around with jewelry after work, mixing metals and rocks and sometimes stones to make chunky but feminine necklaces. A few of her pieces made their way into the hands of Eric Daman, Gossip Girl's costume designer, and within no time Serena Van Der Woodsen was wearing Gemma Redux in almost every episode. Rachel was so busy that though she'd planned on keeping her day job, she had to quit to fulfill the demand for her jewelry. The good news just kept on coming — within weeks of leasing a massive new studio space in Soho, she learned about the CFDA incubator, so now she has two studios from which to build her line, as well as work on her new project, Domestic Holdings.

ELLE: You might be working with a few designers come fall, but is there a particular designer it'd be a dream to work with?

Rachel: That's really hard! I feel like our aesthetic really sort of extends from the really romantic to the pretty industrial. The talent in here [the incubator] is just amazing — being in this environment, and being with like both Prabal and Grey Ant who I think have completely opposite aesthetics, but like, I would love to work with both of them.

ELLE: Would you ever like to expand beyond just jewelry? Or do a line for a store like Target?

Rachel: Yeah, I think definitely there'll be some expansion — definitely to leather goods. Clothing would be amazing, but I feel like I would have to do some serious training before I could even try to design clothes. And yes! I think I'd totally do a line like that. I mean I think the idea behind the brand has always been sort of taking something that might not be pretty right away and making something pretty out of it—so it would be the same idea.

ELLE: Can you explain Domestic Holding?

Rachel: It's a line I'm launching with a good friend of mine, that's also sort of a members only club. Basically, every time we put out a new product you get it as part of the membership. We're starting with retailers, but we're also having a members only website where you can login and see everything that we've done in collaboration with other designers. Everything offered will be custom made, and stamped with your membership number, whether it's jewelry or bags or whatever. It's going to be very small, so whenever you buy something you get a select number of invites to hand out to your friends, and in order to stay in the club you'll have to purchase something at least every third cycle.

Stay tuned for more information on Domestic Holding — Rachel imagines there'll be a big push for it come fashion week.